another lisa

It's over. We went to Cosmic Adventures this afternoon. A big thank you to Dad, Dan and Tim for helping supervise the kids. Guests included: Bailey and Jack (age 5 cousins), Manuel and Graham (age 7, friends from school), Jack and Kayla (age 7 and 9, homeschooling friends) and Michael (age 8, theater friend). Poor Kayla was the only girl, so she pretty much did her own thing throughout. The older kids were very nice with the younger boys so that was not a problem.

One of the problems was that the kids wanted to eat sooner than was planned - but I had warned everyone that food was at 2 pm - so at 1:30 I was not about to buy them all snacks. Once we went into the party room, they got pizza, cake and lots of drinks.

Another problem was that Jack and Kayla were fighting (aka siblings)- so at one point I interrupted their screaming and said "hey - if you are going to act this way I won't invite you to the next party." When kids are misbehaving, I am pretty direct. I was sympathetic for sure. I know Jack pretty well by now, and I think he was having a hard time with the noise level. His frustration levels grew during the afternoon. I had to speak to him several times about controlling himself. By the end of the afternoon, Jack said he never wanted to come back there. I could certainly agree on that point. There must have been over 1000 screaming kids in the place. It is a huge place so it wasn't crowded, but it was incredibly noisy. Owen and I both had headaches when we got home.

Things I would have done differently: I would have brought water bottles - even though they have a water fountain - the kids were hot and thirsty all the time... I would have sat them all down at the beginning and told them my basic expectations.. finally, I would have kept it shorter - so that they were forced to leave when they were still happy and begging for more.

With tax it cost about $200 (Canadian), so it was about $25 per kid, but it included EVERYTHING. Everything being: admission, party room, food, drinks, cake, balloons, prizes, face painting, tokens for the arcade (which gave each kid enough tickets to exchange for other prizes). No, I have never spent this much on a kid's party before, but heck, last year I went all out and organized a cool pirate party at home for Owen which cost almost nothing, so I figure it evens out in the "big picture."


The party itself was great - they are super organized over there - and they even give you a staff person in the party room to serve the food, drinks etc. AND TO CLEAN UP. Actually that is another added bonus: I didn't have to clean up the house (and then have to clean up) for this party.


Owen received tons of amazing gifts. When he got home, the first thing he wanted to do was play the PS2 game that Uncle Dan got for him. That was definitely his favorite gift. But, he also liked the $25 that grandpa gave him (cause he can buy another game!!) Owen sure has a one track mind. He also got great toys (lego, bionicles, batman stuff) and a neat book about a dragon that we are going to read together.

We are having another small get together on Monday night for the older members of the family (ie. my mom and Owen's older sisters) we will go out to Owen's favorite restaurant for dinner and haul home more loot.

This has been a long week. Lots of things happening...

* it looks like my grandmother is planning on having a memorial service for my grandfather in June... this will give us more time to plan... two of my sisters and I are hoping to attend.

* owen's BIG party at Cosmic Adventure is happening on Saturday - we have confirmed 8 or 9 children, 8 or 9 adults... it should be fun (at least for the kids)

* on tuesday, the two full-time admin staff at one of my placement locations got in a big fight and one of them (the nice one) quit... just like that... so all hell broke loose, cause gee, they actually need her. (what a concept) so I have been helping out more - doing phones, putting out fires... luckily it looks like another person will start tomorrow.

* on tuesday afternoon, I helped a friend move all afternoon and I pulled out my knee somehow... it is slowly healing.

* this morning, I did my first pre-trial for a small claims case... it was funny watching this old judge yell at the other side... but then he yelled at me too... I think he missed his coffee this am.

* today, we got a case at my immigration placement that was very bizarre... it was a family that had been accepted as refugees over one year ago, and now, the government has decided to appeal the decision... it doesn't make sense as they are way past the deadline to do so... this poor family (mom, dad and 4 kids) will now have to come up with thousands of dollars to defend their refugee status.... how fair is that?

* I hope to sleep in a tiny bit tomorrow am... to recover from it all.

* I have several files to work on this weekend... I guess its lucky its supposed to rain cause then I won't feel bad about not being out in the garden. (the rain all week is much needed as we were near drought conditions last week)

meditation 

I just found out from my sister Melanie that our grandfather, Francis John Kettyle (Frank) died this afternoon in Victoria, British Columbia. My Nana, Dorothy Kettyle survives him there.

His death was not unexpected as he had taken a bad fall on Valentine's Day, after taking my Nana out for dinner. He fell down some stairs and got a nasty head injury.

My grandfather lived a long, full life. For most of his working career he sold life insurance with London Life. He married my grandmother, Lillian, who was from Ottawa, and they lived in Montreal, where they had two daughters, Carole-Ann (my mother) and Bonnie-Jean (my Aunt). My grandmother died about a year before my mom married my father in 1961.

My mother and father had my sister Dana in March 1962. Meanwhile, my grandfather had remarried Dorothy, my Nana. They had a daughter, Cindy May, in December, 1962. Then I was born in October of 1963. This led to many summers at their cottage in the Laurentians, with Dana, Cindy and myself, summer and winter. I have many fond memories of those years. By the time we were about ten, my Nana, Grandpa and Cindy had moved to Florida, where they stayed until after Cindy had married an American and eventually moved to Colorado with him to start their family and settle there.

Over the years, my mom had some kind of dispute with her father. I tried not to become involved and kept in touch with my grandparents about once a year. The last time they came to Ottawa was when my son Owen was born, probably the summer of 1997. Then, in February of 2000, I took my daughter Zoe out to visit Victoria, where we got to see them for the last time. It just cost too much to go across the country once I was a student.

My sister Kim and her husband Mark went to visit them last summer, so that was probably the last visit from one of our family members. I feel mostly sad for my Nana, she was married to him for over 40 years; now she will be very lonely. I really wish I could go to the funeral, as no other members of my family will probably be going -- but it is very expensive at the last minute to get flights.

spring...where are you??? 

I am back from teaching at our senior high school OWL weekend. OWL is the "Our Whole Lives" program where we teach an intensive currculum (normally taught over 28 weeks) during four weekends. Each time youth participate, they get 1/4 of the curriculum. They sleep over for Friday and Saturday night, and get the evenings to relax and do whatever they want.

Hilights from this weekend include incredible food which was prepared by the young adults group in our congregation. These people are around 21 years old and are former youth group members, so they know many of the youth in the youth group. They plan, purchase and create all of the food and snacks for the weekend in an energetic and creative way.

Also, we had an amazing guest speaker on Saturday afternoon who is from a local talk show "Sex with Sue" -- for the first time ever, I heard an adult telling teens that sex is good for your long-term health - and that it is important to have sex about 4 times a week. She discussed the research on reduction of prostate cancer and risk of heart attack which is linked to regular orgasm. She also very specifically gave instructions, with diagrams on how to give oral sex to women, and challenged the boys and men in the room to point out where the clitoris is. During this part, one boy, about age 17, asked "Isn't pubic hair a problem?" And as she was explaining why it wasn't a problem, our minister, who is in his late 50's, walked in and listened in for a few minutes. I think he was a bit taken aback by the subject, but he took it in, and then quietly left.

I am a team leader - and our team of 5 shared co-facilitating 7 workshops, including:
Verbal and Non-verbal communication
Sexuality Timeline (when is sexuality an issue from birth to death)
Sexual Orientation vs. Biological Sex
Pregnancy and Childbirth
Parenting Licence (what are the factors needed to be a good parent)
Sexual Behaviour (what are the many possible types of sexual activities you can do - and who would you be willing to do them with, if at all?)
Sexual Exploitation (how do you know if something is sexually exploitive or sexual harassment)

The other 3 teams covered a broad range of other sexuality related subjects. Overall, much fun and learning was had by all.

In the evenings, we had different adults arrive to supervise overnight. The youth group had planned a variety of activities, including a rave (aka dance) and playing Wink for over two hours. This morning, everyone got together to do a closing/farewell ceremony and it was very moving to hear some of the youth talk about what they got out of the weekend. For some, they had never participated in this type of group event, and they were overwhelmed with the love and caring they found in the youth community. They said for the first time, they felt "safe" to talk to other youth and adults about "anything" to do with sex. It was so cool.

Whether you like cats or not, this site is just hilarious... and strange.... and um... bizarre.

This weekend, our church is offering its third sex education weekend training program for senior high school students (grades 10-12). We have divided the huge curriculum into 4 parts, and so most of the youth have taken about half of the course so far.

One of the workshops that I am co-leading with my friend Guy is on sexual exploitation. The goal of the workshop is for the youth to understand what the difference is between erotica and sexual exploitation, including sexual harassment.

We thought we would start by asking the question: Why does this matter? And answering from our own perspectives (ie. male, female, work place issues and legal/human rights issues)

Next we thought we would ask the group to define what sexual exploitation means. We will give them some parameters - for example, this session is not about what is illegal in Canada, such as pictures with children having sex or snuff movies. We want to focus on what is considered legal. We expect them to come up with some kind of black and white definition.

Then we want to show them examples of pictures which are considered erotica by some people. We are going to ask them to decide if these pictures are exploitive. The interesting part has been to figure out where to get the pictures. Guy is going to buy some soft porn mags, like Playboy. I found some adult comic and anima pictures that youth would have access to. Plus, I found some slash fiction pictures online which are extremely interesting. For example, I found some drawings of Harry Potter sleeping with Ron Weaseley! I think these might be considered illegal, because they are children - but they aren't having sex, they are just hugging and kissing in the pictures with their clothes on.

Finally, we hope to then see if it was hard to decide which pictures were exploitive, with the emphasis on the fact that sometimes this concept is very subjective - depends who is looking at the picture. We want to try to come up with a test that helps them to figure it out for themselves in the future and be more sensitive about the types of material they read/write, see, say, etc. We will look at what the intent of the material is and its effect on individuals and society as a whole.

Any suggestions would be great!

I got a strange message on my phone machine early yesterday morning. Owen had left me a forlorn message stating that he thought that this would be a good day to celebrate his birthday.

Backstory: Owen, my baby boy, is turning 8 in two weeks... and on the weekend, we were talking about what he wanted to do for his birthday (ie. party with friends or party with family or both) and we realized in discussion with various people that not only is my mom leaving town to go visit my sister in California that week, but Owen's best friend Jack is going away then too for several weeks down to Missippi and Florida. So. If any partying is happening, we need to do it BEFORE his real birthday. His actual birthday he is at his dads. The weekend before his birthday he is with his dad. Which leaves THIS weekend... and I am very busy teaching sex ed this weekend to high school students... so we were negotiating about it and I was busy making phone calls yesterday all day.

Bottom line: I asked his dad to switch a weekend with me (or just a day). He agreed to let us have Owen's party on the weekend before his birthday. So that is ok. Now I just have to figure out where, who, food, etc.... Owen wants to go to a buffet type restaurant to eat, but that's not so great for a bunch of young kids... we may go to one of those big play lands for the party and then just a few of the older people go out for dinner. For now, we know Aunt Melanie, cousins Bailey, Tagan, Uncle Dan, Aunt Jennifer, cousin Griffin, Grampa and cousin Jack will probably be able to come - hopefully friend Jack can come too, and maybe a friend from school.

Sarah S. at Poppins and Kim at Relaxed Homeskool, have both posted on interesting topics this week.

Kim wonders about whether labeling (or acknowledging) "learning differences" in our kids helps or hurts them in the long run. As I commented at her site, I think generally that it is important to know your children's strengths and weaknesses, and not be afraid to accept who they are. Rather than hoping the problems with go away, or that they will grow out of them, it is critical to face them head on. Otherwise, how can you help them to cope with the real world as they face it as young adults?

To me, part of this is just modeling to your children about being honest in self-evaluation. Of course, you wouldn't tell a 4 year old the same types of things as a teen - you need to tailor what you are saying to their stage of maturity at the time. I really believe we are not doing our kids any favour by ignoring their issues. Look at basic self-discipline...if you have a child who is hitting other kids in anger or frustration, you need to face it head on and tell them - under no terms is this acceptable. If you do this, X will happen.

Talking to your child about their problem areas is healthy. By giving them age appropriate feedback, they will learn how to cope. Sometimes I have called this "doing a reality check". For example, Sarah (now 19) was convinced she had veins on her face that made her ugly. She wore tons of makeup for the past couple of years to hide what she thought was horribly apparent to everyone, especially potential boys she might like. The thing is -- standing one foot away, you couldn't see these veins! During this time, I regularly talked to her about her perceptions, and how her OCD was making her see things that other people didn't see. I pointed out that she was using an ultra magnifying mirror to look at her face, which was not how people's eyes worked. We had many conversations about this, but she was convinced she had a problem. I was pretty angry when our family doctor (who I usually am very happy with), sent Sarah to a vein therapist for laser treatment on these veins. The bottom line was that she was over 18, so it was her decision to get this treatment. I told her that I did not agree with her doing it, but she decided to try it. She came back after the first treatment and as far as I could tell - there was no difference. But --- she believed it was improved --- so she was able to stop wearing makeup for the first time in years.

Sarah S. at Poppins discusses how homeschooling is like breastfeeding, in terms of how others (ie. family, friends, teachers, etc) can undermine your confidence in the parenting choices you make.

I struggle with these issues often, as I have had so many people, especially family members and my ex, make negative comments about parenting choices I have made over the years. Whether it was breastfeeding my preschoolers, letting them sleep in our bed, letting them stay home from school, or even, making the decision to work and then go back to school, I have been criticized.

I actually tend to discount what most people say, especially those people who either don't have any children, or have young children, because they simply don't know what they are talking about as they haven't had to face the types of issues that I have had to face, for example, with children who have panic attacks and severe OCD symptoms. For that matter, raising teens successfully is no easy job... and I am proud of how my kids have "turned out" so far. Dorothy, Sarah and Zoe are amazing young persons, and although they have their "quirks" so do we all.

This is an action shot... with the lost boys being taken to the pirate ship by the pirates... Owen is the boy in the green vest in the center.

This is a hilarious picture, as it has Bailey (my nephew), Jack, Owen and Kayla. (left to right) 

Peter tries to revive the dying Tinkerbell. 

This is Darby's daughter, Kayla, as a lost boy, on the right. 

Peter, Wendy, Michael and John learn how to fly. 

Zoe teaches the kids how to fly! 

My daughter Zoe as Peter Pan! 

My Unitarian Jihad name is Sister Light Sabre of Lovingkindness.

Created with the Unitarian Jihad Name Generator.

I saw this over at Music and Cats. There is also a link to the Unitarian Jihad article by Jon Carroll.

Here is an excerpt:

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary.

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States! Too long has your attention been waylaid by the bright baubles of extremist thought. Too long have fundamentalist yahoos of all religions (except Buddhism -- 14-5 vote, no abstentions, fundamentalism subcommittee) made your head hurt. Too long have you been buffeted by angry people who think that God talks to them. You have a right to your moderation! You have the power to be calm! We will use the IED of truth to explode the SUV of dogmatic expression!

People of the United States, why is everyone yelling at you??? Whatever happened to ... you know, everything? Why is the news dominated by nutballs saying that the Ten Commandments have to be tattooed inside the eyelids of every American, or that Allah has told them to kill Americans in order to rid the world of Satan, or that Yahweh has instructed them to go live wherever they feel like, or that Shiva thinks bombing mosques is a great idea? Sister Immaculate Dagger of Peace notes for the record that we mean no disrespect to Jews, Muslims, Christians or Hindus. Referred back to the committee of the whole for further discussion.

We are Unitarian Jihad. We are everywhere. We have not been born again, nor have we sworn a blood oath. We do not think that God cares what we read, what we eat or whom we sleep with. Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity notes for the record that he does not have a moral code but is nevertheless a good person, and Unexalted Leader Garrote of Forgiveness stipulates that Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity is a good person, and this is to be reflected in the minutes.

Beware! Unless you people shut up and begin acting like grown-ups with brains enough to understand the difference between political belief and personal faith, the Unitarian Jihad will begin a series of terrorist-like actions. We will take over television studios, kidnap so-called commentators and broadcast calm, well-reasoned discussions of the issues of the day. We will not try for "balance" by hiring fruitcakes; we will try for balance by hiring non-ideologues who have carefully thought through the issues.

For those of you who know Darby, some of us have been wondering where she has been lately. Yes, she is posting occasionally at her site, but mostly she hasn't been around, including here, so I doubt she will even read this! This is because she is working her ass off writing an epic novel.

I think I helped to get her started because I challenged her to participate in Na No Wri Mo in November, where she successfully completed a fantasy novel in one month. Then she started to write Novel #2, which I was reading. Suddenly, she got a brain wave, and she stopped after writing about 14 chapters. At that point, she started Novel #3, which I plan to read after she finishes it. I am still on tenterhooks about Novel #2, which she swears she is going to finish later.

How do I know all of this? Our boys, Owen and Jack, are best friends, so they get together at least once a week, usually on Fridays. Also, they are in the same theatre program. As well, we go to the same church... where Darby's husband and I are teaching sex ed at our church. Plus, we socialise together some. So if you ever want to know stuff about Darby, just ask me.

Today, we relaxed as much as possible, as neither Owen nor I slept well last night. This afternoon I had to head down to the courthouse to drop off some documents... what I like to call "Filing Fridays"... so I took Owen with me, and after I was finished there, we had lunch and then went to Sugar Mountain.

This store is incredible - it has every candy you have ever seen - including old favorites from the 1960s and 1970s from when I was growing up. It was so hard for Owen to pick something - he finally went for packaging and picked something that looked like a pail of paint with a paint brush to "paint the candy on your tongue"... He assumed it was orange flavored as it was orange in colour. Unfortunately, when he opened it and tasted it, he didn't like it much. So I ended up sharing with him.

It was a beautiful day here and really nice to walk around downtown. After that, we went over to pick up Jack and Kayla, as they had their first public show tonight of Peter Pan. Zoe was already there, as she had been helping set up the lights all afternoon. They perform the show tonight, twice tomorrow, and the last show on Sunday, which we are all going to see.

Another mom took lots of pictures yesterday when the cast was performing Peter Pan at a local elementary school. She was nice enough to send me some of them. Here is Owen as a Lost Boy.

Most of the cast, performing in a school gym. 

Owen, in the middle, dressed as a Lost Boy. 

Some of the younger cast members waiting in the hall for their cue. Owen is the "bug" on the far right. My nephew Bailey is the little white bunny. Owen's friend Jack is beside Owen. 

Zoe stars as Peter Pan. 

Some of the cast goofing around. 

Wow! I got to see the production today of Peter Pan - Zoe and Owen are both in it - Zoe as Peter, and Owen as one of the lost boys... it was really great. My sister Dana, who lives in California, rewrote the script and songs (with help from her kids and husband). All new songs - with an overall theme of love and friendship. I was very impressed. And of course, my mother went all out with costumes that were amazing. Hopefully I can post some pictures soon.

My step-daughter Amelia, age 17, has outdone herself this past week. This term, 0ne of her courses was a grade 11 Law course. Her teacher had sent a message to me asking if I would consider coming in to talk to the class about law stuff. I sent him an email on Monday, saying that I would be happy to come in. I got a strange, stiff response saying "thanks but no thanks".

The next day, we found out by accident that Amelia had dropped the course. I felt bad, so I emailed the teacher and said... "gee, sorry, I didn't know she had dropped your course." When I asked her why she had dropped it - she said, and I quote, "well... the teacher was lecturing too much - he expected us to take notes!"

I looked at her and said "well, you can say goodbye to university if you aren't willing to take notes"... and she said "who says I wanted to go to university anyway?"

Meanwhile... since January, Amelia has been complaining that her work hadn't been giving her enough hours. This week they booked her in for an extra shift and she had a fit - saying she was going to quit, since it was interfering with her school work.

From what we can tell, she hasn't been going to school much in the past week... and last night she tried to sneak in her boyfriend for a "wakeover" after 10 pm. So we had to confront her and say... "Hello... remember the rule about no late night guests on a SCHOOL NIGHT?" She thought we were jerks for making him leave by midnight.

I think her social life is what is interfering with her school work. It is discouraging, since we had thought she had made a real turnaround from her attitude issues last year. Maybe it's just a bad week????

This has turned into a very long introduction - but if you are interested in homeschooling, it is worth a read!

The urge to send our children to school, to have them "succeed" at school, especially in high school is huge. Our generation was raised to believe that it was not only the law to send your children to school, but that if you didn't graduate from high school, you would be a failure in life. On the one hand, I think our society doesn't realize that western society does have many privileges, including mandatory, publicly-funded education for all children. There are many cultures in the world where education is not provided, especially for girls. So I have felt alot of guilt for wanting to homeschool my kids. On the other hand, our society has evolved to the point where we realize that home schooling can be a good option, especially since our own general population is more educated than it was one hundred years ago.

I didn't know much about homeschooling when my eldest daughter was attending elementary school. She hated school and repeatedly refused to go, but we didn't know we had an alternative. By the time she entered high school, she was having huge panic attacks. That was when I said, "enough is enough" and I let her stay home for her high school years. Most of my friend, co-workers and family thought I was ruining her life by not making her go to high school.

It wasn't until the next year that I attended a homeschooling conference in Ottawa and attended a workshop on homeschooling high school aged youth that I started realizing that this was a legitimate option. I learned about different families and how there were many varieties of home schoolers, and I was particularly interested in learning about "unschooling". Somehow, the idea of setting up a class room in my own home to mirror what the public school board was offering didn't sit right. The point was that for my kids, something was missing.

With Dorothy, she needed time to figure out who she was and what her future might hold. For the first two years, she was extremely isolated. This was not because she was not going to school, but because of her social anxiety. By the time she was 16, we encouraged her to join a local pottery class with adults. She enjoyed this, and then switched to a bigger studio where she became a studio potter. In the meantime, she self educated herself by participating in an active online community, and kept up on her voracious reading.

As she got older, she developed some self-confidence and was able to cope more with her anxiety. By the time she was 19, she got her first real job in a store and worked there for almost a year. At that job, she made some new friends. As well, she met and became involved with her first boyfriend. I was happy to see that she was coping with her social anxiety. The reason I am mentioning all of this is that to me, "school" isn't just about academics. For my children, academics come very easily. For my children, social skills are the huge challenge. I feel bad because I didn't know how to help Dorothy develop her social skills - other than to be here for her, to be available to talk, and to give her regular hugs. Over time, I learned more about how to be a better parent, and I think I did a better job for Zoe, in terms of being an advocate for her at school and elsewhere. (My daughter Zoe has similar panic attacks and social anxiety)

It was interesting to see what happened with Sarah. She finished grade 10 and then decided to stop going to school. She did not suffer from social anxiety - but she could see that high school was wasting her time. By this time, Dorothy was taking university courses, and Sarah found that she was able to do the work that Dorothy was doing at university. So Sarah did not finish high school... and again, many friends and family felt the need to criticize me for not "forcing" her to finish.

All this to say, that I still wanted Dorothy (and Sarah) to go to university (which is college in the US). I think education is very important in this world - not just in terms of getting a job - but in terms of understanding our chaotic world. So, when Dorothy was 19, we got her into one of the universities here in Ottawa, where she continues taking one credit at a time. She still doesn't know what she wants to major in, but that's ok. I am just happy that she is developing skills to successfully complete university credits. As well, it gives her a way to meet new people.

Meanwhile, Sarah has been working full-time for almost two years now (she is 19 now) and has developed those types of skills - and learned that maybe she doesn't want to work in a store for the rest of her life! Sarah has learned how to be somewhere on time, how to be organized, and how to budget and save some money. She made a huge decision recently- she recently registered for the TESOL (Teaching English as a SEcond Language) course at the University of Ottawa, planning to go to China or some other country for a year to teach and think about what she wants to do. Sarah has an extensive theatre background, so she is considering teaching as a career option. I have suggested that if she enjoys her teaching English experience, she come back here to do her undergrad, which is required for getting into teacher's college. Either way, it is a great idea for Sarah to travel, work in another country and get some more life experience.

I heard about the Peace and Carrots website from my friend Lea a while back and have been meaning to mention it sometime. Peace and Carrots Farm is an organic farm in where Wendy has homeschooled her daughter Heather since grade 2. Heather is now a young adult, age 19, and she decided to continue her unschooling through her college years.

Heather is a very creative young woman and decided to name her college O.R.I.O.N., after her favorite constellation, which stands for Outdoor Recreation Institute of New England. Read all about how to unschool college at her extensive web site. Heather has built her own house, hiked thousands of miles and gotten involved in the community.

I am actually amazed at what she has accomplished. It takes a huge amount of confidence to approach the world in this unconventional way. If any of my children wanted to do this, I would do what I could to support them. I just don't know if we are gutzy enough to do it.

Lea at Day at the End of the Road had these links posted a few days ago. They are:

FBI Adventure

FBI Investigates

Crime Science

Gina mentioned that she was a Libra. So am I! I found this great description of Libras which absolutely fits me. In summary, Libras like: sharing, conviviality, gentleness and dislike: violence, injustice and being a slave to fashion. (ha.. they got that one right!!) The longer description is so much like me it's amazing. Years ago, I had my chart done, and they found out that I was actually a "double Libra" which means that my birth sign is Libra and my Rising sign is Libra too. This means I am intensely a Libra. You can find out about your sign information here. What Sign are You?

Eric sent me this hilarious link for Fursacci, a new online designer clothier for dogs. Check it out! Your kids will love this site... and you will get an idea of how the upper crust dress their dogs.

You're Costa Rica!

You're about as peaceful as anyone on the planet, a real dyed-in-the-wool
pacifist. And why not? No one really poses much of a threat to you and
everything seems to work out, no matter how much violence and insanity rages all around you.

So you relax and appreciate nature and culture while the rest of the world carries on their petty disagreements. If only everyone could follow your example...

Take the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

I

Early yesterday morning, something terrible happened here in Ottawa. A fire took the lives of a mother and her 4 children, ages 12, 13, 14 and 20. The father was able to rescue an infant, his grandson (presumably the son of the 20 year old daughter) but could not get back into the building a second time. Firefighters revived one other adult male family member, but all of the others had succumbed to the smoke - it appeared that they attempted to get a window open as several of the children's bodies were found by the same window.

Every time I hear news coverage I have had to choke back tears as I think about this poor family and how much the victims may have suffered, and how much the survivors are now suffering - all three have severe burns and are in hospital.

When I had to go to the Law Society office today to pick up some papers, it was one block from where this fire took place, and the entire block had been closed off as they were holding a memorial service. I didn't know this family, but many others in my community did. I am glad that so many have stepped forward to show their support to them. Thousands of people showed up today for this service that a local community health centre organized.

It also was good (but also upsetting) to hear about how the school board sent social workers in to the school where the three boys had attended. The staff were there to provide support to the students and teachers who knew these kids.

Several people have been talking about their camping experiences. Kim at Catawumpus tells of their hellish camping trip on the weekend. But these girls were in cabins! Let me tell you about one of my camping trips from HELL.

About 10 years ago, I organized a camping trip with moms and their kids at a Provincial camp grounds about an hour away from Ottawa. There would be about 6 moms with about 14 kids in 6 tents sharing 3 adjacent sites. One of the moms I invited was my sister Dana, with her twins, age about 5, who had never been camping before.

We arrived about an hour before sundown on a Friday night. Those of us who knew how to set up tents went around and helped people get their tents set up. By the time I got to setting up my tent, it was dark, so I turned on my headlights to give me some light. Of course, I couldn’t keep the engine running all this time, so my battery went dead. No big deal, as I had jumper cables.

By the time we had the tents up, it was past 8 pm and we had to feed the kids something before they went to bed. We decided there was no time for a fire that night and we all just crashed. Because we were so tired, and there was a clear, starry sky, we decided not to put tarps up until the morning. Of course, about 4 in the morning, it started pouring, so not only did some of the tents leak, but many things had inadvertently gotten left outside (ie. Not in tent, not in car) and got soaked. This included kids’ clothing bags, boxes of groceries and firewood.

The next morning we had a pleasant surprise besides the soaked items to clean up. It turned out that there was a Native Pow Wow taking place at this campsite this weekend. It was very exciting, and after feeding the kids, cleaning up and getting the tarps set up, we all went for the day and had a great time enjoying the drumming, dancing and food.

For Saturday dinner, everyone pitched in something towards a huge meal and we all had a nice time. We planned for a great campfire, but it started raining right after dinner. Some people went back to their tents to relax, but I was determined to have a fire, so my sister and my friend Eileen with all of our kids had a fire which we enjoyed somewhat while trying to stay under the tarp as it poured. Now this was camping!

Now, my friend Eileen had invited another friend of hers with her children. The only problem is that these people were coming down with the flu and were throwing up all Saturday night. By Sunday morning, many of us, including myself, had fevers, headaches and nausea. These symptoms, combined with the constant sound of drumming from 10 am until 11 pm, caused me to pass out in my tent for the entire day.

That afternoon, my friend Linda’s daughter, Sierra (age about 3) was bitten on the nose by a ferret. Not some wild animal, but a ferret that some other camper had brought as a pet. For the rest of the day, Linda freaked out about rabies and kept worrying about whether or not she should take her child to an emergency room.

Another thing to mention is that this was the summer of the amazing wasp infestation. We had been camping a few times and they were especially bad that year. Because of this, we had to be extra careful with leaving drinks and food out, and we made wasp traps. When we were packing up on Monday morning, I was stung badly on my leg – and had such bad swelling that I couldn’t drive. Luckily, my friend Eileen drove my van home.

The next week, I was talking to my mom about the trip. She told me that my sister’s kids had told her all about it and that it was the best vacation they ever had!

So, in case you don't know, Playstation came out with a new handheld version of their games last week. I was wondering how long Eric would hold out. I think he lasted about 7 days. He basically said that if I could buy one movie each month, he could afford to buy this for himself because its entertainment value would last for years. I am really trying to be positive about this, but since he brought it home on Saturday, he is using it all the time, whether he is in bed, in the bathroom, on the bus or at work. His body is present, but his mind is gone...he has been taken over by the game. Oh well... this means I will be finding other things to do for my socialization needs for the near future. (or at least until he beats the game).

Check out these amazing pics that were taken on a field trip to the aquarium in Newport, Oregon. I saw them over at Tvindy... where apparently, I have won a prize (for providing helpful advice!) This is the second blog prize I have won lately, as Sarah at Poppins Classical Academy sent me a great cd of music for winning her "create a caption" for her dog's picture contest. I guess it's my lucky month or something!

Tomorrow I am going to our regional detention centre to observe an Immigration Detention Hearing. It is a bit scary going into a jail... it must be horrible to be thrown in there by accident. Our client is a university student who didn't have his papers when the Immigration authorities came along and he was put into detention. In these types of cases, the people are put into the general jail population. It is very disturbing to see this happening in Canada.

Can you imagine if your son or daughter was attending university in another country, and through a misunderstanding, they ended up in jail for weeks? I have kids this age. In fact, my daughter Sarah is planning on going to China to teach English in the fall. This exact situation could happen to her, and we would be powerless to help her.

Holly over at Mean Teacher was describing their adventurous camping trip into the mountains. I can't imagine camping in April! Here, the May long weekend (in Canada we celebrate the Queen's birthday on the May long weekend) is usually the first time anyone thinks about camping, and then there are tons of black flies and mosquitos. I prefer waiting until the end of August when there are less bugs. Sometimes it is a bit cooler, but that's fine with me.

I also have never camped in the mountains. The place we have been going for about 15 years is Sandbanks Provincial Park, one of the most popular camp grounds in Canada, due to its extensive beaches and sand dunes the size of very tall trees. You have to reserve 5 months ahead to get a decent site, which I usually do. Some years we have just gone down for a weekend and stayed in a motel. They have camping in the woods and near the beach. Usually we choose the woods, as there is more shade, but this year I have chosen a beach site because that's where the dogs hang out - there is a dog beach at this place!

This way if we want to bring Suki, we can. I think she would love it there. She likes people and dogs so it should be ok. As long as we bring enough people who can take turns watching her, we will be fine. The only time I could get a full week was the last week of August, which isn't great for Oliver, as it looks like he is visiting us in July. Oh well. We can't plan everything around what his mom wants.

Hopefully we can do some other small excursion when he is visiting in July. Last year we went to Montreal to La Ronde (an amusement park) for a day trip.

Gina over at Jumping In took her kids on a field trip to the Higgins Armoury Museum...located in Worcester, Massachusetts. They have various collections of armour, including hunting, combat and tournament wings. My kids would love to go here... I am thinking maybe this summer... as part of our vacation. I just have to figure out how long it would take to get there... it's a day's drive to New Hampshire from Ottawa... so maybe it would be one more day???

OK...so these aren't really flowers I have seen here YET... but it's been raining for a few days so all the damn snow has pretty much gone and we have soggy, muddy lawns and huge puddles everywhere... therefore I am sure that flowers must be on their way. Now if only the sun would shine. Here is our weather forecast. FYI 15 degrees Celsius = 59 degrees Farenheit.